The Attraction of a Warrior
by Rhyfeddol
Summary: A demonstration of a certain warrior's combat abilities has Blake experiencing strange new feelings. What do they mean, and what will happen when she figures them out?
1. Chapter 1

**Blake**

As Pyrrha headed to the middle of the room to prepare for battle, I found myself staring. The redhead carried herself with elegance rarely seen in anyone else besides Weiss, yet she lacked the arrogant demeanour the heiress always put out. Her long red hair flowed behind her, tied up in the usual ponytail. Her bronze strapless top hugged her curves, accentuating the girl's exquisitely toned form, while the light brown V-neck beneath displayed some of her ample cleavage.

"All right, Miss Nikos, let's find you an opponent," Professor Goodwitch told her. Piercing eyes scanned the room from behind oval-shaped glasses, searching for an ideal candidate. "Miss Schnee? You haven't participated in a sparring match in this class for quite some time. Would you care to challenge Miss Nikos?"

I looked to the side and saw Weiss, stiff-backed as ever, watching Goodwitch with rapt attention. She was quick to oblige the professor's request, and headed down to join Pyrrha, walking as elegantly as the redhead had. I didn't find the heiress' journey nearly as interesting as Pyrrha's though.

The two fighters took up their stances as the lights around the room dimmed and spotlights came on above them. A buzzer sounded, and the two began to circle each other warily. After several seconds, Pyrrha's vibrant emerald eyes narrowed and she charged forward, Miló at the ready. Before she attacked, however, Weiss brought Myrtenaster forward in a jabbing motion and Pyrrha was forced to block with Akoúo or get skewered.

The shield absorbed the impact as Miló became a javelin and was swept at Weiss' feet. She gracefully did a backflip to avoid the attack and distance herself from Pyrrha before launching an ice-based attack of her own. The redhead rolled to the side and switched Miló to its rifle mode, opening fire on the heiress. The white-haired girl raised a shield glyph in response, which deflected every bullet. I noted a small smirk on Weiss' face, but my gaze soon drifted back to Pyrrha. Even for such a talented fighter, this match could prove challenging. Weiss' glyphs, combined with her Dust attacks and simple rapier techniques, made for a very diverse style. Of course, Pyrrha's abilities were far from limited, so I somewhat doubted Weiss would win, despite having multiple advantages.

As these thoughts ran through my head, the two girls in the arena began to fight again, with Weiss going on the offensive. She launched some fire at Pyrrha, who had to roll yet again to avoid being incinerated. In the split second it took her to perform this manoeuvre, Weiss used a glyph to launch herself up and was now preparing for an aerial attack on the redhead. Pyrrha noticed with enough time to raise her shield and block Myrtenaster's sharp tip, and didn't seem fazed by the impact. Weiss, meanwhile, bounced off Akoúo and wasn't able to recover before Miló, once more in javelin form, was swung at her. The shaft caught her in the stomach, knocking her several feet to the side.

She hit the arena wall, just below the spectator stands, with an audible thud and fell to the floor below, where she lay motionless for several seconds. I noticed Pyrrha's immediate panic as she thought she'd caused serious injury to the heiress. She ran over, and I took great interest in how her rear looked in her miniskirt.

I suddenly became aware of someone poking my arm, diverting my attention from the redhead I had been observing. "Blake?" Yang asked as I reluctantly turned to face her. Her lilac eyes were filled with concern as she inquired, "are you okay? You seemed zoned out."

"What? Yeah, I'm fine," I replied, turning back to look at Pyrrha. She appeared to be talking to Weiss, who was now sitting up against the arena wall, looking dazed.

"Must've hurt," Yang commented beside me.

"Yeah..." I agreed, not really paying attention.

"You sure you're okay? You're really out of it."

"Yes, Yang. I'm fine," I snapped irritably.

"Okay," the brawler shrugged. Immediately, I felt bad. Yang had only been showing concern, and I'd shut her down as easily and carelessly as a certain white-haired girl currently being checked out by the school nurse, who had been present in case anything like this happened. Sparring practice does have its dangers.

"I'm sorry," I told Yang quietly.

"About what?" she asked, cheerful as ever.

"That was rude. I don't know, I'm just in a weird state of mind right now." Truthfully, I really _didn't _know what was going on inside my head. I'd spent basically that entire match staring at Pyrrha, instead of observing how each fighter reacted to the different situations they out each other in, which would have allowed me to work better with them in the field. I also hadn't been particularly worried about Weiss hitting the wall, choosing instead to focus on Pyrrha's rear end as she ran. And then there was my reaction to Yang being concerned about me. While I'd never cared for attention, I didn't usually lash out like that to simple questions like _are you sure you're okay_.

"It's fine," Yang told me. "But you know, and I don't mean to pry here, if anything's going on and you want to talk, I'm here."

"Thank you," I replied. She smiled as if to say _no problem_ as the bell rang, signifying the end of the period, and, incidentally, the end of the day. I quickly left the classroom and headed to the library, where I figured the silence and a good book would clear my head. As I always did when I had time to myself to read, I curled up in one of the large armchairs within the library and allowed myself to get lost in the world lovingly crafted by the author of my current novel. I got so wrapped up in the plot, which, I would be somewhat ashamed to admit to anyone else, contained more than a little smut, that I didn't even notice three hours pass. I realised with a slight twinge of regret that I'd missed dinner, but nonetheless decided to go back to my dorm.

As I turned down the hallway containing both Team RWBY and JNPR's dorms, Pyrrha and Jaune exited, both seeming rather excited about something, presumably one of their rooftop training sessions. A strange feeling bubbled in my chest when I saw the redhead laughing, more likely than not at something her dorky companion had said. This feeling only intensified when I saw how at ease they were together, but I couldn't explain what it was.

"Hey, Blake," Jaune greeted as he passed. "You weren't at dinner; you all right?"

"Just… lost track of time," I replied.

"Yang was worried," Pyrrha told me. "You should make sure she knows you're okay." I tried to answer, but for some reason being in the redhead's presence caused my throat to constrict and I could only manage a nod and a forced smile. The pair looked at me dubiously, but said nothing.

"See ya, Blake," Jaune told me as he walked off with Pyrrha. I gave a distracted wave in response.

When the two of them were gone, I shook my head to clear it and entered my room, where I saw Ruby holding an ice pack to the back of Weiss' head. Both girls looked up when they heard the door open, while Yang, who had been pacing, stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face me.

"Hello," I greeted coolly. "Sorry I missed dinner; I got distracted and didn't notice the passage of time."

Thankfully, no one pried. Unfortunately, Yang decided to try to be funny. "Were you reading _Ninjas of Love_?" she asked, grinning.

"No, Yang. I was not," I replied truthfully. What she didn't know is that I _had _been reading smut, just not a novel she was aware of.

"What's _Ninjas of Love_?" Ruby asked, confused.

"Blake's favourite book," Yang teased.

"No it isn't!" I protested, aware of the hot blush burning on my cheeks. Before the blonde could make any more remarks, I decided to change the subject and ask how Weiss was doing.

"I _was _fine, but the nurse insisted I don't walk back here on my own so Yang decided to carry me bridal style," she responded. At this point, Yang began snickering. "And _then _she had the audacity to hit my head on the doorframe on the way in!" Despite feeling some pity for the heiress, even I had to suppress a grin upon hearing that. Yang, meanwhile, was now leaning against the wall, shaking in silent hysterics. Weiss glared at the blonde, but her golden mane formed a curtain over her face, obscuring her view of anything in the room.

Soon after, Weiss decided she needed to study while Ruby continued to hold the ice pack. The younger girl seemed slightly irked by having to do this, but didn't complain. Meanwhile, Yang took a chair over to the window and stared out into the night, uncharacteristically quiet. I figured I should just read some more, careful to select a novel that wouldn't be banned in the school library if it ever turned up there. I did _not _want Yang teasing me about my choice of literature.

After half an hour, it became painfully obvious that I wasn't going to be able to focus. The words were swimming on the page in front of me and I realised I'd read the same sentence seven times, not taking in any of it. My mind kept wandering to the day's events, specifically the ones involving Pyrrha. Why had I been so distracted by the sight of her in combat? Why had I been unable to so much as open my mouth to speak to her? There was no doubt that she was stunning in the physical sense, but so was Yang, and the blonde had never had that effect on me. In fact, no one had. The only trouble I'd ever had talking to people came from my deeply ingrained dislike of social interaction, but that had never stopped me from conversing with anyone on Team JNPR. If anything, it had lessened to the point where I had found myself desiring close relationships with a tight-knit group of people.

Eventually, I decided to go to sleep. I grabbed my yukata and headed to the bathroom to change, after which I crawled under my covers and passed out.

**A/N: First chapter. There you go. So, Pussy Magnet. This is a new one for me, but it's my secondary ship with Blake (after Bumblebee) so I thought, "why the hell not?". Anyway, I don't know what other ships (if any) will be in the story. I also don't know how long it'll be or any of that stuff, because screw planning this stuff out. Quick point about the timeframe: this is before the dance. That may or may not be important later (was that a spoiler? Is something gonna happen at the dance? Stay tuned to find out). Anyway, leave a review and follow/favourite if you want. Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Blake**

Sleep proved difficult to come by as thoughts kept circling in my head, many of them concerning Pyrrha. For the life of me, I just couldn't figure out what was happening with her. It seemed as though I couldn't keep my mind off the girl, however hard I may try to distract myself by doing other things.

What could any of this _mean_? That day had me experiencing feelings I'd never had anything close to, so I had no idea what they were. The word _crush _kept coming to mind, but I had trouble believing that a crush was the case. I mean, there could be no denying that Pyrrha was insanely attractive in a purely _physical _sense, but I wasn't sure if I even _liked _girls. Furthermore, since when had I, the antisocial bookworm, ever had romantic feelings for anyone?

These thoughts kept me wide awake for hours, but eventually I fell into a troubled, dreamless sleep. I woke up what seemed like seconds later, not feeling refreshed at all. It was more like I hadn't slept and instead blanked the rest of the night out of my memory. I looked around the room and noticed that none of my teammates were anywhere to be found. The shower was running, however, so clearly someone was still around. I didn't have to wait long to find out who, because the shower suddenly shut off. A few minutes later, at which point I still hadn't bothered getting up, the bathroom door opened to reveal Yang, whose normally luscious mane was currently still soaked and therefore hanging like ropes, devoid of its normal lustre.

"Morning, Blake," she called out cheerfully when she saw that I was awake. "Ruby and Weiss went into Vale, so it's just you and me today!"

"Morning. Why'd they go into Vale?" I asked.

"Well, actually Weiss wasn't a huge fan of the idea, but she wanted to make sure Ruby didn't go overboard on cookies or weapon accessories."

"Ah," I replied, nodding slowly.

"I think the main reason Weiss didn't want to go is because she's nervous about being alone with Ruby," Yang told me, much to my surprise.

"Why's that?" I asked, seriously confused by the blonde's words.

"Come on, Blake, isn't it obvious?" she replied. I looked at her expectantly, hoping she'd get the hint that no, it was not obvious, at least not to me. "Okay, maybe not. Right, how do I put this..." She trailed off, looking pensive. "I'm pretty sure Weiss... _Likes _Ruby," she finally explained. I looked at her in shock, mouth agape. "You didn't notice?" Yang asked amusedly.

"No..." I replied, still in shock.

"Have you seen the way she _looks _at her? The only time the Ice Queen becomes the Lukewarm Water Queen is when she's looking at my sister!" Yang exclaimed. "She frickin' _melts_."

"And you know this because...?" I asked.

"Hey, I notice this stuff. I mean, while you were in the library yesterday and I accidentally hit Weiss' head on the doorframe, she started yelling-"

"Shocking," I cut in.

"Yeah, I know, right? Anyway, she calmed right the hell down when she looked at Ruby. It was like 'BE MORE CAREFUL YOU IDIOT WERE YOU _TRYING _TO KILL ME- watch what you're doing next time'."

"But what about how hard she is on Ruby for studying and stuff?"

"Man, if Weiss had been a dude in this situation and you asked that question..." Yang replied, laughing. "Anyway, I think that's just Weiss' weird-ass way of showing concern. She wants Ruby to do well, so she's a drill sergeant. She hasn't mastered the 'friend' business yet from what I can tell."

"You really think she likes her? _Weiss_, of all people, liking _Ruby_?" I asked, still not believing Yang's theory.

"Not really our business, but yeah, I'm pretty sure."

"Wow."

"Yeah. Anyway, wanna do something fun?" Yang asked, suddenly full of excitement.

"Like?" I replied, full of trepidation. The brawler's idea of "fun" tended to involve breaking stuff or setting it on fire accidentally. Either that or finding things to tease Ruby about. Older sister instincts, I suppose.

"Kill some Grimm? It's good practice," she suggested.

"Why not?" I shrugged. "Let me get dressed first." I got a change of clothes and entered the bathroom, where I opted not to shower until I got back. No point getting clean if I would just be going out to get sweaty and dirty in the Emerald Forest. Instead, I donned my usual attire and retrieved Gambol Shroud upon exiting the bathroom. Yang was loading Ember Celica, filling both gauntlets with shotgun shells that could obliterate most things in a short range.

"Ready?" she asked as she loaded the last shell. I nodded. "Sweet. Let's go." I followed her out of our room and into the forest, where she hoped to find plenty of Grimm to destroy.

"How about we make a game?" she suggested after a few minutes.

"How?" I asked. "Killing Grimm is serious business."

"Whoever kills the most is the winner!" she replied, in a tone that said it should have been obvious. "The loser gives the other person a prize."

"What would this prize be?" I asked warily. Again, you had to be careful agreeing to Yang's ideas. She wasn't as bad as Nora, but not knowing what she had in mind before going along with her plans can very easily go badly for you.

"I don't know. What would you be willing to give me?"

"Are you implying that you're going to win?"

"No, but if I do. What would you give me?"

"What would you want?"

"Hmmm..." The blonde stared off into space. After a while, her eyes lit up. "You have to go for a week without reading smut. If you do read any, you have to read it out loud to the whole team!" she exclaimed.

"Even Ruby?" I asked, wondering if she'd thought this through.

"She knows what smut is, she just doesn't know you read it. Willing to risk her finding out?"

"If _I _win, you have to read a whole book of my choosing. Might be smut, might not," I told her.

"You're on," she replied with a cocky smile. "But we can't split up. Otherwise we could just lie about how many we kill."

"Yeah, because there's _so _much danger of me lying to win a bet," I told her sarcastically. She shrugged, before calling out, "come on, bitches! Come at me!" I sighed and prepared for a possible attack.

It wasn't long before a Beowolf burst from the trees twenty feet in front of us and to the right. As Yang rushed forward, hoping to claim the first kill of our bet, I switched Gambol Shroud into its pistol form and shot the Grimm three times between the eyes. It fell back, lifeless, and Yang was forced to come to a skidding halt lest she trip over the corpse at full speed.

"That was my kill!" she complained. "You're like one of those assholes in the online shooter games," she added in an undertone. I figured she'd forgotten about my Faunus hearing, because a human wouldn't have heard what she said but I did.

"You're not faster than a bullet, Yang," I replied. "There is no way you could've killed that Beowolf before I did."

An hour or so later, we arrived at the forest temple where we'd collected the relics for initiation. I had fond recollections of this place, like Ruby falling from the sky, or Nora riding in on an Ursa shortly before declaring herself "Queen of the Castle". My heart did a strange flutter in my chest when I realised this was also where I'd seen Pyrrha running from a Deathstalker in a flat sprint. _Pyrrha. Why can't I stop thinking about you? _I wondered. Once again, the word _crush _came to mind, but I still had trouble believing that it was the case. There _had _to be a better explanation. If I could take a step back and analyse everything objectively, that might have helped, but alas, there was no way for me to do it.

I considered talking to Yang about it, given that she'd said the day before that she was there if I wanted to talk, but even with being more open with her, I still didn't feel particularly comfortable discussing emotions, especially those I didn't understand.

As I stood there, contemplating this, I suddenly heard a loud bang. My head snapped round in the direction of the sound and I saw Yang standing over a dead Beowolf, one of her gauntlets smoking.

"We're even now, Blakey," she told me, smiling. "Thanks for not stealing this one."

"Blakey?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it's either that or kitty cat. You need a nickname," she explained. I rolled my eyes in response. "Anyway, let's find some more pricks to kill."

I followed her deeper into the forest, where we eventually encountered a King Taijitu.

"Ideas?" Yang asked, dropping into a low stance with her arms raised.

"Take one head each, don't get hit or bitten," I told her.

"One head each... Hehe," Yang muttered, chuckling.

"Good lord, Yang, can you save that until _after _this thing is dead?" I asked exasperatedly. Before she answered, the Taijitu's black head lunged at me. I rolled to the side and slashed it with Gambol Shroud in katana form, causing it to recoil in pain. Meanwhile, Yang had fired off a couple of long-range blasts at the snake's white head, eliciting an enraged hiss. It bared its fangs at her before lunging, but the brawler was prepared. She sidestepped the attack and threw all her weight into a punch aimed at the snake's eye, firing Ember Celica when her fist made contact. The white head exploded as the black head tried to hit me again. This time, I jumped and landed gracefully on it, using my cleaver to attempt to slice through. Unfortunately, the scaly hide proved to thick for my blade to cut before an aggressive shake of the head threw me off. I twisted in midair and landed on my feet, much to Yang's amusement.

"Hey, why is it that cats _always _land on their feet?" she asked, grinning at her own joke. I ignored her and instead focused on the remaining head of the Taijitu. It lunged again, and I thrust my katana into the roof of its open mouth. The impact hurt my arm quite a bit, but the Grimm was clearly worse off than me. It struggled to raise its head as I removed my sword, the red glow in its eyes quickly fading. The Taijitu gave one last shudder then was still as it began to dissipate.

"Are we counting this one, or..." I asked.

"Nah. Or we could say we each get a kill, because we killed a head each," Yang replied. I shrugged, indicating that I didn't care either way.

A couple of hours later, we were both tired and hungry. Our score for the bet was even and there didn't appear to be any more Grimm to kill. I suggested going back to the school for food and rest, and Yang wholeheartedly agreed. On the way back, however, we stumbled upon something that made us stop dead in our tracks.

A lone Ursa, ambling around aimlessly. It had its back to us and so it didn't know we were there. Lilac met amber as Yang and I turned to look at each other, both of us speaking a silent challenge to the other.

Still not saying a word, we both rushed forward, clamouring for that last kill which would win the bet. With the longer reach of my sword as compared to Yang's gauntlets, I was able to sever the beast's spinal cord with a well-placed katana strike, before sliding under its legs and slicing open its abdomen with my cleaver. I then rolled to the side to avoid being flattened by the corpse as it fell forward. Yang looked at me, smiling.

"I guess you win. What am I reading?" she asked.

"I'll figure it out," I told her. "Anyway, let's eat."

"Agreed." With that, we headed back inside in search of food.

**A/N: There's another chapter. Thanks to everyone who followed and/or favourited so far. Wow, it's been ages since I've said that. Anyway. More doubt and insecurity in Blake's mind. Just **_**what**_** is going on (if you can't work it out, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you shouldn't read a shipping fic. Moving on)? For the way Blake killed the Taijitu, it's basically Harry killing the Basilisk in the second Harry Potter book/movie (books are better. If you say otherwise, you're wrong), except the sword is also a gun and I would find this scene way more interesting because Bellabooty. Anyway, that's all, so leave a review and follow/favourite if you want. Thanks for reading. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Blake**

Yang and I trudged back up to the school, tired but satisfied. Killing Grimm all morning felt very rewarding, especially considering I'd beaten the highly competitive brawler at her own bet. Both of us had gotten through the morning unscathed, with nary so much as a scrape to illustrate what we'd been doing.

On arrival, we found that the campus was nearly deserted. Fairly normal for a Saturday, because everyone tended to relax in their rooms or go into the city. Occasionally students would go out into the forest for some live practice, like Yang and I had, but generally those who wanted to train would settle for one of Beacon's many training rooms.

The cafeteria also proved to be mostly empty, with only a few people eating, spread out across the room in their own little groups. Most of the tables were free, a fact I didn't dwell on because the smell of food had made me realise just how hungry I was. As if on cue, Yang's stomach rumbled loudly beside me. Wordlessly, we headed over to the serving counter to see what was available today.

I was pleased to see that tuna sandwiches were being offered, while Yang opted to take an entire chicken. I raised an eyebrow at her, and she merely shrugged in response. After I got a carton of milk and she got some People Like Grapes soda, we made our way to a table. After a couple of minutes of comfortable silence between the two of us, a loud, familiar voice made us turn to face the serving counter.

"NO PANCAKES?!" Nora yelled in frustration. "Ren, you have to make some. You make the _best _pancakes. _Pleeeaaase_?" she added, speaking more quietly but extremely quickly. She was joined by the rest of Team JNPR, who looked around apologetically.

"Not now, Nora," Ren told the redhead patiently. "Pick something they do have. I'll make you pancakes another time."

"Okay..." Nora replied dejectedly. After she and her team had their food, Yang waved them over to our table. They joined us, as they usually did, and I became very aware of Pyrrha sitting right beside me. I could barely focus on the fact that Nora was back to her normal level of excitability, eagerly telling us yet another story of her and Ren's exploits before coming to Beacon. Ren would occasionally interrupt to make corrections, which I barely heard despite my Faunus hearing.

I sneaked a glance at Pyrrha. The sunlight streaming in through the windows caught her hair in such a way that it looked like fire dancing on her back. Seeing her like that, I understood why her name was Pyrrha. Flame-coloured. Self-explanatory in that moment. Even though I'd only intended to take a fleeting look at the girl, I found myself enthralled by her beauty and unable to look away. I only got drawn back to reality when I felt something sliding up my nose. I jerked my gaze away from the warrior beside me and realised I'd missed my mouth with my straw.

"You okay, Blake?" Yang asked, just as concerned as the day before.

"Mm," I replied, trying to play it cool but blushing furiously. At this point, I was getting annoyed with myself. I couldn't stop thinking about Pyrrha when I wasn't around her, and when I was my brain refused to work properly. I seriously needed to sort this thing out before I did something really embarrassing. Thankfully, Yang seemed to realise something was troubling me and stood up.

"Great hanging out with you and stuff, but we gotta go," she told Team JNPR. "Blake said she'd help me with some homework." I was about to ask "I did?" when I realised Yang was getting us out of there in the least awkward way she could. I nodded and, after we'd both cleared our trays into the garbage, walked with her back up to our dorm room.

When we arrived, she told me to go shower and that we were going to talk afterwards. She wouldn't say any more than that. I showered and got dressed quickly, while harbouring a suspicion about what it was Yang wanted to talk about. I really hoped I was wrong. When I got out of the bathroom, the blonde was sitting on my bed, obviously waiting for me. She patted the space beside her, so I made my way over and sat down.

"What's going on with you, Blake?" she asked after a few seconds of silence.

"What do you mean?" I replied, trying to dodge the subject for as long as possible.

"You haven't been yourself lately."

"You think so?"

"I know so. Yesterday, during Goodwitch's class, you were completely out of it. Then we didn't see you for hours. It's not normal for you to disappear without a word like that, or miss dinner. Then today, you didn't even notice the Grimm at the temple until you heard my gauntlet go off, not to mention lunch just then. You spent most of it staring at...something. It honestly looked like all your attention was focused on Pyrrha. And the straw-up-the-nose. Not like you at all," Yang explained. "So, what's going on?"

"I...I don't know," I replied.

"Come on. Give me something here. I'm trying to help, but I can't if you don't let me."

"But I really don't know."

"Has there been anything on your mind lately?" At that, I laughed mirthlessly. "What? We might be getting somewhere here," the blonde told me.

"There is...something...that's been on my mind a lot," I replied, slowly and reluctantly.

"Something? Can you please give me just a _teensy _bit more?"

"Okay, it's...some_one_."

"Oh? Mind if I ask who?"

"You're going to anyway, aren't you?"

"Yup."

I sighed, before muttering "it's Pyrrha."

"Come again?"

"Pyrrha," I repeated, louder this time.

"Pyrrha? Really?" Yang asked in shock. "I mean, yeah, she's hot, and a badass, and an all-around great person, but I never really saw you as the type..." she trailed off after I glared at her. "Anyway, wanna tell me about it?"

"I guess so. I'm really confused so it might help," I replied, before taking a long pause. "I can't... I can't get her off my mind. The slightest reminder of her and I just zone out completely thinking about her. That's what happened at the temple. I remembered seeing her running from the Deathstalker and that was it. Your gauntlet blast brought me back to reality." She nodded. "Then when I'm near her, that's the worst. My brain shuts down. Hence the straw up my nose."

"Anything else?" Yang asked. I shook my head. She pursed her lips and was silent for a minute or so. "Blake...I'm not sure how to tell you this."

"Tell me what?" I asked nervously.

"It sounds to me like you have a crush. A pretty big one, actually," Yang told me.

"I...I do?"

"Seems like it."

"What do I do?"

"Well…what do you think you should do?"

"Why would I be asking if I already knew?"

"See, there's no one solution to everyone's situation when they like someone. You have to figure it out yourself," Yang told me sympathetically. "I'm sure you will though."

"Okay."

"I can give you one piece of advice: don't ignore what you're feeling. At least, not forever. Worst case scenario is that you never do anything then something happens that prevents anything between you and her."

"All right."

"Remember, I'm always here if you want to talk."

"Thanks. Hey, don't…don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Of course not." Suddenly, Yang leaned over and hugged me. The heat from her body calmed me down a lot, but the hug didn't last long. The blonde pulled back, stood up and headed towards the door. "See you later," she told me as she left. When she was gone, I lay down and stared at the bottom of Yang's bunk, resting precariously above me. I remained like that for a long time, until I heard the door open again.

"Ruby! Slow down, you'll choke!" Weiss snapped as she entered the room with Ruby. _Good thing Yang didn't hear that_, I thought, smiling to myself. The actual reason behind the sentence was perfectly innocent; Ruby was eating cookies. Actually, _inhaling _was a better word in this case; the girl seemed to not be chewing them at all. How she managed to eat anything that fast was beyond me. Meanwhile, Weiss was carrying a bag, which, judging by how delicately she placed it on her bed, I figured contained Dust, ammo or both.

"Hey Blake!" Ruby called out cheerfully.

"Hello."

"Where's Yang?"

"No idea. She left without saying anything."

"Oh, okay. How was your day?"

"Fine. Yang and I had a bet over who could kill the most Grimm," I told her.

"Oooh, who won?" she asked eagerly.

"I did. Now I get to choose a book which Yang has to read from start to finish."

"Go to the library and borrow a dictionary or an encyclopaedia," she suggested.

"I'm not that mean."

"Aw. That's boring."

Some time later, Yang came back and suggested we go for dinner. I didn't want to risk seeing Pyrrha before I worked out what I was going to do, so I opted to stay in the room. Yang frowned, but said nothing.

My teammates left and came back an hour later with some salad, which I ate while reading. In fact, I spent most of the rest of the weekend reading, determined to avoid seeing Pyrrha until I absolutely had to.

On Monday morning, I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to see the redhead, for better or for worse. I dejectedly went through my morning routine, wishing I didn't have to go outside. Yang clearly noticed my attitude, but didn't say anything. Ruby on the other hand didn't know the situation.

"Blake, is something wrong?" she asked, full of concern, while we were walking to our Grimm Studies class.

"I don't want to talk about it," I replied.

"Okay." Thankfully, Professor Port had assigned our seats at the beginning of the year and I was nowhere near Pyrrha. I figured I'd be able to focus, not that it would have mattered in this class. Unfortunately, the veteran Hunter had an announcement to make.

"Good morning, class," he boomed. "Today, you will be receiving a…research project of sorts." The entire class, save for Weiss and I, groaned. "It will be done in pairs-" at that, everyone looked around the room, trying to make eye contact with the person they wanted to work with. "-which I will be assigning" Port finished. The class groaned anew. "I will explain your assignment, then you will receive your partners. First, you will select a species of Grimm. The two of you will come up with a strategy to kill it as efficiently as possible. Submit a written report detailing this strategy two weeks from now. Then, over the course of several days, after the required Grimm have been captured by our staff, you will demonstrate your strategy. You will be graded on the effectiveness and execution of the strategy, as well as the difficulty of killing the Grimm you selected. Questions?"

"_Any _Grimm, Professor?" Yang asked beside me. I figured she was going for a loophole. Knowing her, she'd pick the rarest Grimm known to man and only have to do half the project.

"No. You will choose from the choices you are given," Port told her. "If there are no more questions, I will tell you your partners. Yang Xiao Long and Nora Valkyrie." Yang grinned and shot Nora a thumbs up. "Ruby Rose and Lie Ren. Blake Belladonna and-" I inhaled sharply, waiting for the professor's next words. "Pyrrha Nikos." _Well, fuck_, I thought, as Yang patted my leg sympathetically.

**A/N: There's chapter 3. Hope you enjoyed. So, some development. How's this project going to end? Stay tuned to find out. I don't have anything else to say, so leave a review and follow/favourite if you want. Thanks for reading.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Pyrrha**

"Blake Belladonna and Pyrrha Nikos." Upon hearing that, Blake, who was seated several rows below me, planted her head on her desk. I couldn't quite figure out why, as we'd never had any difficulties getting along. Maybe she had really wanted to work with someone in particular, or maybe she'd realised something unfortunate but unrelated to the project and the timing was a mere coincidence.

Either way, I was a tad disappointed about not getting to work with Jaune, but at least we'd still have our nightly practice sessions. He'd improved greatly since we'd started on those. Even Professor Goodwitch had noticed; she now had far fewer disapproving remarks concerning Jaune's performance in sparring matches.

"You have today's period to choose your target species and begin working. After that, you are on your own," Port told us after he'd finished assigning pairs. Sounds of movement suddenly reverberated throughout the room as everyone made their way to their partners. Blake showed no signs of getting up, so I headed towards her and sat down.

"Hello," I greeted cheerfully.

"Hi," Blake replied, avoiding eye contact. "Uhhh... What Grimm should we do?"

"Looks like Professor Port's writing the options on the board now," I told her, pointing. The veteran Huntsman was indeed in the process of listing several species of Grimm on the blackboard. When he was finished, I saw that we could choose Ursai, Beowolves, King Taijitus, Deathstalkers or Nevermores. "He said tougher Grimm are worth more marks, so I say Deathstalker or Nevermore. Both of us have experience with those anyway," I pointed out.

"Deathstalker. Blind it, remove its stinger, it's done," Blake replied. "Besides, we won't have to pin it down or anything like that." I noted that, throughout her speech, she sounded nervous about something.

"True. But we'll have to be more specific. Like, does one of us distract it and one does the attacking, do we both attack, that sort of thing, as well as the type of attack."

"Uh..." Blake said. She was acting very out of character. Usually, she could come up with an answer to a question like that extremely quickly. She had been off during lunch on Saturday as well. Curious. "With my S-semblance, I'd make a...a better distraction," she told me. "I can leave copies, be in multiple places at once."

"Right."

"A-are you gonna blind it first or take out the stinger?" Blake asked. There was an almost indiscernible quiver in her voice as she spoke.

"That's a good question. I don't know what's best," I replied truthfully.

"If we take out the stinger, it-it'll become less dangerous. O-only the claws to worry about," she pointed out.

"That's true. Also, blinding it might make it unpredictable. It's probably best if it can see you and your clones so you'll always know where it's going to strike."

"Mhmm."

"So maybe you keep the thing occupied as long as you can, then I throw Akoúo to sever the stinger. A few shots from Miló, and you can help with Gambol Shroud, and it'll be blind. At that point, it shouldn't be too hard to kill," I proposed.

"Yeah. If we avoid potential flailing claws and things like that, we should be able to exploit chinks in its armour."

"Yeah, the ones Port told us about. Oh, wait..." I trailed off, smiling. Blake found my joke rather entertaining. She laughed harder than I'd seen her laugh in a long time, and didn't stop for nearly a minute. It almost seemed like she laughed _too _hard, but I figured something must have been going on with her and it was influencing her behaviour. I also figured it would be best not to ask, as she wasn't exactly the "sharing" type.

The rest of the period was spent with Blake and I discussing strategies on killing a Deathstalker with just the two of us. Eventually, the bell rang and it was time for sparring practice with Goodwitch. I decided to sit this one out, because I'd fought several matches in the last few classes and on Friday I'd nearly given Weiss a concussion. Instead, the blonde Huntress called on Blake, who rarely participated in any matches. The black-haired girl gracefully leapt over the railing onto the combat floor and landed lightly on her feet, seemingly effortlessly, as Goodwitch looked around the room to decide Blake's opponent.

"I'll do it," Yang called out, grinning eagerly.

"Very well. Miss Long, come on down," the professor replied. Yang climbed down the steps and joined Blake in the middle of the room, whispering something in her ear as she passed. I couldn't hear what was said, but Blake attempted to give Yang her famous death glare. Unfortunately for the Faunus, whatever Yang had said had made her blush so much that the effect of the glare was lost. Meanwhile, the blonde smiled, apparently infuriating Blake further.

The lights around the outside of the room dimmed, leaving only the two combatants in the centre easily visible to anyone without night vision. Blake drew both swords while Yang activated her gauntlets, both of them taking up their stances as Goodwitch signalled the start of the match. Unsurprisingly, Yang went on the offensive, charging at Blake with her fist drawn back. That fist met one of Blake's shadow clones, while the real Blake flipped over the blonde's head and attempted to slap her with the flat part of her blade.

Yang proved to be too quick, executing a low spinning kick to take Blake's feet out from under her. The Faunus jumped over Yang's leg, landing just as the brawler began a rapid flurry of punches. Blake managed to deflect all of them then hit Yang in the stomach with the flat of her blade.

"Miss Long, you need to be more defensive. If this were a real fight you would now be dead," Goodwitch told the brawler. "Continue."

The fight continued for several minutes with no clear victor emerging. Throughout it, I found myself taking a slightly keener interest in Blake than usual. I noticed the extreme precision with which she placed her strikes, never wasting energy. The fluidity of her movements also caught my eye, but I figured it was all just the warrior in me analysing Blake's fighting style for when we would have to take down the Deathstalker together.

Eventually, Blake got lucky with a low sweep which knocked Yang to the floor. As the blonde moved to get up, she found a pistol in her face, and Goodwitch declared Blake the winner. The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Blake was even quieter than usual during lunch, rarely looking up from her book except to eat. When she had finished her food, she didn't look at or speak to any of us. Again, I wrote it off as something she had going on that was none of my business.

That evening, Jaune and I had one of our training sessions. I could tell his heart wasn't really in it for whatever reason, so I went easier than usual on him while we sparred. It got to a point where he thought he had the upper hand, but a knee to his crotch made him drop like a stone.

"Well done! Your sword play's improved immensely," I laughed, helping him to his feet.

"Couldn't have done it without you," he replied.

"So, are you ready to move on to Aura?" I asked.

"I'm actually thinking that maybe we skip Aura for tonight?" Jaune answered. "Maybe go on a jog or something."

"Come on, I know you get frustrated," I told him. "But you must keep trying. I'm sure we'll discover your Semblance any day now."

"It's not that. It's.." he hesitated. "It's dumb."

"What is it?" I asked, gently placing my hand on his shoulder. "Jaune, you know you can tell me."

"It's... Weiss." My heart sank, but I tried to remain composed for Jaune's sake. If anything did show in my face, he didn't notice.

"What about her?"

"I asked her to the dance and she shot me down," he explained. With a sarcastic laugh, he added, "big surprise, right?"

"Well, as they say, plenty of fish in the sea."

"Easy for you to say. You probably have guys climbing over each other just to ask you out," he said, oblivious to the details of my dating life up to that point. _He has no idea_, I thought bitterly.

"You'd be surprised," I told him.

"Please. If you don't have a date to the dance I'll wear a _dress_," he replied, dead serious. He then went inside, leaving me alone on the roof. A solitary tear dropped from my eye as I thought about Jaune liking someone else.

**A/N: I'm back with another chapter. Sorry it's shorter than usual, but as my friend put it I "packed a punch with the plot development". I've also been busy with midterms coming up, so yeah. Actually, midterms have nothing to do with it because I don't give a fuck about them. I've actually been playing Saint's Row Gat Out of Hell and solving my new V-Cube 6 all week (that's like a Rubik's cube, only higher quality and 6x6x6 instead of 3x3x3). Anyway, now we know how Pyrrha feels. This could get interesting... Also, yeah, that was just a very slightly modified version of the rooftop scene from Extracurricular, and that was intentional. Nothing else to say, so leave a review and follow/favourite if you want. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Blake**

"'Want me to go easy on you so you look good in front of Pyrrha?'" I snapped at Yang when we got back to our dorm at the end of the day. Weiss and Ruby had gone to the library to get some work done, so the blonde and I were alone. This was unfortunate for her, as it meant I could let out the full extent of my annoyance at her "joke" from just before our sparring match. "Really?"

"Hehe," she replied, grinning sheepishly. "I thought you might want to… you know…impress her?"

"I am _not _some lovesick puppy, thank you very much," I told her, glaring.

"I know," she answered, suddenly dead serious. "You're a lovesick kitten." My glare only intensified. "Too far?" she asked.

"That's one way of putting it."

"Sorry."

"Are you though?"

"Of course! I was just having some fun, I didn't mean to upset you."

"Okay. But please, no cat jokes, and be serious if you're gonna talk to me about Pyrrha," I implored.

"Sure. I'll just tease the other two!"

"Okay, but don't come crying to me if Weiss shuts you down."

"Oh, don't worry. I'll only do it when they're together. Weiss won't give me shit with Ruby around. Or at least, it'll be shit I can handle," Yang told me. "But anyway, are you gonna do anything about... You know... Pyrrha?"

"I don't know, Yang," I sighed. "This isn't my area, and there's so many variables in this situation."

"There's, like, two. Does Pyrrha like girls, and does Pyrrha like you. I can't help you on the first one, but frankly, for the second one, if she doesn't, she'd be missing out, not you. Under your whole 'no emotion can show' exterior thing you have going on, you're one of the best people I know. If Pyrrha can't see that, well, she's not worth it," she told me gently.

"Are you just saying this stuff to be encouraging and make me feel better about this?" I asked.

"Of course not. You're smart, witty, gorgeous, compassionate, loyal to your friends, an incredible fighter, need I go on?"

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, I do. Seriously, if and when you decide to make a move, you got this."

"Okay."

"Anyway, what Grimm did you and her decide on for Port's assignment?" Yang suddenly asked, back to her usual jovial tone.

"Deathstalker," I replied, causing the blonde to blink in surprise.

"Really?" she asked in disbelief. "A _Deathstalker_, with just twopeople?!"

"It was one of the options, he said part of the grade is based on what species we pick, Pyrrha suggested the Deathstalker because it'd be worth more points and we have experience fighting them," I explained. "What'd you and Nora go for?"

"Ursa Major. She's good at riding them."

"Yang, we're supposed to _kill _the Grimm we choose, not bring them to a rodeo," I told Yang, not understanding what she was getting at.

"See, that's part of the plan! Nora rides it, gets it to crash into trees and shit, then it's stunned and we take it out no problem!" she told me excitedly.

"You'll certainly get points for creativity."

"I know, right?" Suddenly she took on a more serious tone, as she explained, "the original plan was to just bash its brains out with Ember Celica and Magnhild, but Nora decided it'd be boring."

"Might have been more efficient," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but as you said, points for creativity. Anyway, what's your plan?"

"We haven't worked it out entirely yet, but basically I'm gonna distract it and keep it busy while Pyrrha takes care of its stinger. Then we blind it together using our firearms, exploiting chinks in its armour when it can't see us attacking," I explained.

"Makes sense."

"I just don't know that I'll be able to…you know…focus," I complained. "You know, when we actually have to take it down."

"I could dress up as her and we'll go find one together so you can practice," Yang suggested.

"I… don't think that'd help very much," I replied.

"Just an idea," she shrugged. "Doesn't matter. You'll be fine. Trust me."

"I hope so."

"You know what you need to do, Blake?" she asked, suddenly sounding inspired.

"What?" I replied, unsure of what to expect from the blonde's next words.

"Hang out with her. You know, just the two of you," she told me. "Platonically, just so you can get used to being around her and stuff."

"Yang, you know I don't do the whole 'hanging out with people platonically' thing," I pointed out.

"You should do, though. Trust me, it'll help."

"Okay," I replied. "I'll… give it a shot, I guess."

For the rest of the day, I thought about my dilemma. I had no idea what I was going to do about my feelings for Pyrrha. On the one hand, I could just confess. The problem was that I wouldn't know how to do that, not to mention the fact that I'd be worried about the redhead rejecting me. On the other hand, I could do nothing, and watch as she potentially ended up with someone else. Either way, there was a high probability of unfavourable outcomes.

Eventually, I managed to push the thoughts aside and curled up in bed with a novel. Admittedly, it was basically pure smut. I figured it'd keep me distracted. It worked, to an extent. I didn't think of anyone else until I decided to turn in, least of all Pyrrha. Unfortunately, I had what could be described as _lewd _dreams concerning the redhead along with myself… _re-enacting _certain scenes that I'd read before going to sleep. When I woke up, I was glad I didn't have to share my bed with anyone.

After going through my usual morning routine, I decided to head to the library to do some research on Deathstalkers and how to kill them. Anyone who'd taken a Grimm Studies class with Peter Port would know it was necessary. Listening to tales of bravado for the entire lesson wasn't the best way to learn how to defeat the monsters we were training to kill.

Once inside the compendium of information that was Beacon's library, I acquired a stack of encyclopaedias and other reference material. Staggering slightly under the weight of the books, I made my way over to a table and began reading. Some of the encyclopaedias turned out to be useless for my purposes; they only really talked about the biology of Deathstalkers. The only thing I found worthy of note was that venom from their stingers has been proven to be dangerous to the creatures themselves. In other words, Pyrrha and I could potentially weaken the scorpion if we could figure out a way to get its venom into its own bloodstream.

Speaking of the redhead, she'd apparently had the same idea as I had; I soon spotted her flaming hair among the bookshelves as she gathered some reading material of her own. I then remembered what Yang had said the day before and figured the blonde might have had a hand in Pyrrha's decision to come to the library today. I got a strange feeling in my chest as she approached my table with her books; part elation at seeing her, but part nervousness about being alone with her. I tried to act normally as she sat down.

"Good morning, Blake," she greeted.

"Hey," I replied. I managed to keep my voice perfectly level, didn't speak quietly and didn't blush, so I felt like I'd scored a victory.

"Research or studying?" she asked, gesturing at the encyclopaedia I was reading from.

"Research for killing the Deathstalker," I told her.

"Anything useful?"

"Not really. Just that their own venom is harmful to them. Maybe we could try to weaken it like that?"

"That could be challenging," Pyrrha pointed out. "But not impossible."

"So, how are you?" I asked, realising that we hadn't even exchanged pleasantries before discussing the project.

"I'm fine, I guess," she replied. I noticed that her eyes were tinged with red, suggesting that she'd been crying. "You?"

"I'm good." I decided not to ask about her eyes, figuring she'd bring it up if she wanted to. She didn't, and we just talked about meaningless things as we researched Deathstalkers. By the time I was ready for lunch, we had the beginning of our written paper done and I'd found myself perfectly comfortable with the redhead's presence. I was no longer nervous about being around her and actually felt like I was talking to a normal friend. The only difference was that I occasionally had to stop myself from staring at her.

"I'd say we've had a productive morning," Pyrrha observed at around noon. I only then realised that I'd been in the library with her for three hours. Yang had been right; alone time with the girl _had _made it easier for me to be around her. Say what you will about the brawler, but she certainly knew what she was talking about when it came to social matters.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Want to go get some food?"

"Sure." We put our books back where we'd found them and headed to the cafeteria, where we found our respective teammates sharing a table, as usual. Yang shot me a knowing look as she saw Pyrrha and I enter, but said nothing. Spending my morning with the redhead and not making an idiot of myself had left me in a great mood, and I was in soaring spirits as I sat down to eat.

**A/N: I'm back to TAOAW! Sorry for the massive delay, I just didn't have inspiration. By that, I mean I did a while ago and wrote half the chapter, then I didn't have any more inspiration. Then I cranked out the rest today. Anyway, thanks for reading. I don't have anything to say, so leave a review and follow/favourite if you want.**


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